There is a cable show that my friend Jennifer is a big fan of these days. It is RuPaul’s Drag Race on VH1 and LOGO. I remember RuPaul being famous in the early 90s with her hit song “Supermodel (You Better Work).” Now she has reinvented herself as a reality TV host. In each episode of this show, contestants (drag queens) complete a mission. (Usually the missions are something drag-queen -related such as making a dress out of curtain drapes, doing a commercial shoot, etc. Two contestants with the lowest score are up for an elimination and RuPaul says her famous line: “Lip-synch for your life!” The two put on their best drag performance and then finally one leaves (or “shashays away”).

One of the contestants on this season’s show is Boston’s Jujubee. She used to live in my town and perform at Diva’s, a local gay/lesbian bar. Last Wed she visited my town and performed at Diva’s again. What a homecoming show!

When I watch YouTube videos by J-vloggers, I hear them saying “Minasan, konichiwa.” I know what “Konichiwa” means but not “Minasan.” I kind of guess that it refers to someone, as I know that “San” is a suffix that comes after a person’s name or title. I wanted to look it up in a dictionary but I couldn’t because I didn’t know hiragana (one of the Japanese alphabets) and neither know how to type it in computer. Curious enough, I studied hiragana over the weekend. Still my understanding of hiragana is clumsy but good enough to type “Minasan, konichiwa” in Japanese on my own. I wish I had studied Japanese when young.

Today’s video is a bit different than usual. I initially started making cooking videos because I felt bored of “just” cooking and cooking “just” for myself. But this time my dear friends Zach and Trish told me that they would come up for dinner and I was cooking for them. They also brought a pie for the Pie Day (March 14th as in the mathematical number 3.14). It was fun to cook with them and hang out.

I cooked “Mizore nabe”. “Mizore” means sleet in Japanese and it is a reference to the way it is cooked with grated daikon on top. (The grated daikon looks like sleet on the dish.) It is an interesting name for the dish, like “Oyakodon” as in parent/child for chicken/egg. (I won’t talk much about the recipe this time.)

After the main dish, we had some pie. Trish was feeling extremely happy and suggested that we all dance. We played music videos on my wall and danced. It was lovely to watch them dance. They are such a sweet couple. I hope someday I can dance with someone that I love.

I’m fond of disco music. Abba, Blondie, Diana Ross, Sister Sledge, Village People… To me, disco is very communal and campy. It has certain softness that speaks to sexual minorities. Think of the time when disco was popular–the 70s right after the Stonewall Riot and before the beginning of AIDS epidemic. People seemed freer and more soulful. For these reasons, I like disco. Also I dated a DJ once.

In my living room, I set up a disco light system. Put together a disco mirror ball, a projector, and iTunes and you can have your own disco room in your place.

Last evening Betina who lives downstairs hosted a pot-luck party for her friend who is going away. Out of bordom for the Friday evening, I decided to attend it and also to say hi to my neighbor. I thought of what food to bring to the party and then figured I should bring some veggie dishes. (It is often times a safe bet when you attend a party by people that you do not really know because there can be some vegetarians.) I decided to bring inarizushi (fried bean curd sushi) and kimchi onigiri (rice balls with kimchi stuffed inside) to the party, along with a card that has descriptions of the ingredients.

I’ve met some people at the party and said hi to them. Later in the party towards the night some craved for a hot tea drink. Xtina and her friend made a hot toddy with whiskey. I did not know about the drink, so I documented it to review it later. Here is the video:

When I lived at home with my family back in Korea, my mom would cook katsu curry for me and my little brother. Curry (in Korean style) was thought to be a “kids’ dish” as it has some sweet taste to it. For this reason, when eating katsu curry, I feel in particular nostalgic.

My mom would add potato to curry in replacement of meat, and I think many Koreans do the same. But in this video, I am using no potato. The pork cutlet has some grease taste to it as it is fried, so adding ingredients that have some sour taste like tomato or apple neutralize the grease taste. Let’s go over the recipe:

How to cook curry:

Add some olive oil to pan and heat it up. Add chopped onion and carrot. Add grained garlic and ginger. Add curry powder. Sautee the ingredients and mix them well.

Chop the remaining onion and egg plant into one-inch pieces.

Add water and canned tomato. Add curry blocks and bay leaves. Add the chopped onion and egg plant. Lower the heat and have the ingredients simmer.

Peel off the apple. Remove the seeds and stem. Soak it in salt water for 5 minutes and take it out and grain it. Cut bell petter into one-inch pieces.

Add bell pepper and apple. Continue cooking it for 10 minutes.

How to cook tonkatsu:

Remove any excess fat from the pork. Soak it in sake for 10 minutes. Take it out and season it with salt and pepper.

Coat it with flour, beaten egg, and panko (Japanese bread crumbs) in order.